MEDIA ALERT: High Court rules on TUT eviction case

The High Court of South Africa, Gauteng Division Pretoria has handed down its judgment in the matter between the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) versus the Student Representative Councils and All students residing in the student residences of TUT’s Pretoria West and Ga-Rankuwa campuses.

The matter concerns the unlawful eviction of the residence students on all of TUT’s campuses, which took place September 2014. The evictions, which occurred in the context of numerous pending high court applications and a pending contempt application against TUT’s top management stemming from previous unlawful evictions in January of the same year, took place without notice, without a court order and in violent circumstances.

The litigation, which started almost a year before the #FeesMustFall movement, took place within the context of student protests concerning NFSAS funding and challenged TUT’s methods of supressing such protest action through the blanket eviction of all students residing in its residences. These evictions took place regardless of the presence of protest action on the individual campuses, with less than 24 hours notice and with no provision of alternative shelter. The resulting homelessness affected the most financially vulnerable students, regardless of their involvement in the protests, and was viewed by the student bodies as collective punishment.

While the court declined to make the declaratory orders sought, it confirmed that a student’s residence must be regarded as a student’s home and as such the relevant constitutional protections and legislative procedures are applicable.

“The need for TUT to comply with the law and abide by its own court orders, particularly when asking students to do the same is once again highlighted. The University must engage with the students in a bona fide manner and recognise that continued high handed responses and collective punishment, designed to cause division, will simply increase tensions.”

“Mass evictions, particularly when carried out against students who rely on the university residences for food and shelter, and who can simply not afford to return home, not only undermines those students’ education and places them in an extremely vulnerable position but it also fails to take into account the realities of poverty many of the TUT students are trying to overcome.”

For more information contact Louise Du Plessis 082 346 0744